As the world has looked for alternative energy sources to replace fossil fuel, one solution has been the use of wind turbines to generate electrical power. One problem with the use of wind turbines for power generation is maintaining the turbines to prevent power disruptions due to failure of the components in the turbines. Most wind turbines are located in wind parks with multiple turbines. These wind parks are often situated in remote areas to take advantage of prevalent weather patterns in the area. In these remote areas, the wind turbines are often exposed to extreme environmental conditions. These extreme environmental conditions include, but are not limited to, extreme temperatures, rain, snow, blowing debris, and rough seas.
There are two problems associated with placing the wind parks in these remote locations. The first is the aforementioned extreme environmental conditions. This may cause premature failure of components in the turbines. The second problem is that inspection and maintenance of the wind turbines is difficult and often times expensive to complete. Therefore, those skilled in the art are constantly striving to find ways to minimize the amount and frequency of on site inspections and maintenance while keeping a maximum number of wind turbines operational.
In the past, those skilled in the art have focused on optimizing failure detection of a component in the wind turbines. Some skilled in the art have observed that components of wind turbines in the same area typically have a similar pattern for wear of components. Thus, identical components in different wind turbines in the same wind farm are subjected to the same environmental conditions tend to have a similar life cycle. For purposes of this discussion, a component is any system and/or sub-system in a wind turbine that performs an operation in the wind turbine. Further, life cycle means the time during which the component is operating within defined parameters.
Those skilled in the art have observed that a life cycle for a component has three periods. The three periods are an infant mortality period, a random failure period, and a wear-out period. The infant mortality period is the time period during handling and installation of the component; and up to the time of commission of the turbine during which installation and handling of a component can cause failure. After commission of the turbine, the component enters a random failure period during which some random event may cause failure of the component. Finally, sometime later, the component enters a wear-out period that is the time period during wear and age cause the component to fail. Since wind turbines in a same wind park are subjected to the same conditions, the life cycle for identical components in different turbines should be approximately the same. Thus, those skilled in the art are constantly striving to lengthen the random failure period of an identical component of wind turbines in a park to avoid failures of multiple turbines at the same time.